The Spring Festival is an ancient festival in my country and the most important festival throughout the year. How to celebrate this festival has formed some relatively fixed customs and habits over thousands of years of historical development. There are many It is still passed down to this day.
Sweeping dust
"On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house." According to "Lu Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of doing hygiene and welcoming the New Year cleanly.
Posting Spring Couplets
Spring couplets are also called door couplets, spring posts, antithetical couplets, couplets, peach charms, etc. They describe the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. , is a unique literary form in my country. Every Spring Festival, every household, whether in urban or rural areas, selects a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and sticks them on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju’s Spring Festival Couplet monograph "Three Couples on the Threshold" has a detailed introduction to the origin of the couplets and the development of various works. The characteristics are discussed.
There are many types of Spring Festival couplets. According to the place of use, they can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal drapes, spring strips, bucket squares, etc. The "door center" is affixed to the upper center of the door panel; the "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; the "horizontal stripe" is affixed to the crossbar of the door; the "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding places according to different contents; "Dojin" is also called "door leaf", which is square and diamond-shaped, and is often attached to furniture and screen walls.
New Year Pictures
Posting New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a prosperous and joyful festive atmosphere to thousands of households. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", and "Welcoming Spring and Bringing Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Slender and Slender with the Beauty of the Country", which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Luzhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.
Pasting window grilles and pasting the word "福" upside down
Folks also like to paste various paper-cuts - window grilles - on their windows. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower". With its unique summary and exaggeration techniques, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, decorating the festival with prosperity and splendor.
While pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families will paste the word "福" in large and small sizes on their doors, walls and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. The word "福" refers to blessing and luck, expressing people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "福" upside down to express "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns with detailed drawings, such as longevity star, birthday peach, carp jumping over the dragon gate, good harvest, dragon and phoenix showing auspiciousness, etc.
New Year's money
During the Spring Festival, the elders will distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger ones. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits. Because "Sui" and "祟" are homophones, the younger generations will get With the New Year's money, you can spend the first year of life peacefully. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve.
Folks believe that by giving New Year's money to children, when evil spirits, monsters or "Nian" harm the children, the children can use the money to bribe them and turn evil into good luck. Wu Manyun, a native of the Qing Dynasty, wrote in his poem "New Year's Money": "One hundred and ten pieces of money are threaded with long colorful threads. If you divide them and put them on your pillow, you can keep them for yourself. You can discuss the price of firecrackers and flutes, which makes Jiaoer busy all night." From this point of view, New Year's money is tied to the innocence of children, and children's New Year's money is mainly used to buy firecrackers, toys, candies and other holiday items.
Nowadays, the custom of elders giving out lucky money to younger generations is still prevalent. The amount of New Year's Eve gifts ranges from tens to hundreds. These New Year's money are mostly used by children to buy books and school supplies. This is a new fashion. New content has been given to the lucky money.
Staying up late
Staying up late on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of staying up late has been around for a long time. The earliest records can be found in the "Feng Tu Zhi" of Zhou Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the year old".
"One night is two years old, and the fifth watch is divided into two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together, has New Year's Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the fire and chats, waiting to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. At this time, the all-night vigil symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem about "keeping the year old": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.
In ancient times, staying up late had two meanings: older people staying up late meant "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing time; young people staying up late meant staying up late to extend the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the transition time between the new and the old year has generally been at midnight.
Firecrackers
Chinese people have a saying of "opening firecrackers". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to ward off the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. During major festivals and happy events, as well as weddings, house construction, openings, etc., firecrackers must be set off to celebrate and for good luck. Now, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are famous hometowns of fireworks in my country. The firecrackers produced are of various colors and high quality, and are not only sold well across the country, but also exported to the world.
New Year greetings
On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish each other New Year’s greetings. Good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the clan leader and several people go door-to-door to pay New Year's greetings. Some are colleagues inviting a few people to pay New Year's greetings. There are also people who gather together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship." Since it was time-consuming and laborious to visit people’s homes for New Year’s greetings, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used various stickers to congratulate each other, thus developing the later “New Year’s greeting cards.”
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to the elders and wish them longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger ones. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "year" and "evil" "Homophonous" means that if the younger generation gets the lucky money, they can spend one year in peace. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular.
An important activity during the Spring Festival is to go to new friends’ homes and neighbors to wish them a happy New Year, formerly known as New Year greetings. The custom of paying New Year greetings among the Han people has been around since the Han Dynasty. It became very popular after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Some people who did not need to go there in person could send congratulations with name cards. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was called "thorn", so the business card was also called "name thorn". After the Ming Dynasty, many families put a red paper bag on their door to collect name cards, called a "door book".